Move Better on Court: Rugby Fives Footwork Drills

Rugby Fives rewards players who can get to the ball quickly, hold a strong position, and recover between shots without losing balance. Court movement often separates the weekend player from the competitive regular, and small adjustments in stance, anticipation, and footwork can deliver immediate results on the wall. Whether you are new to the sport or a seasoned campaigner chasing those extra percentage points, sharpening how you move is one of the highest-return areas of your game.

Across Australia, interest in the sport is quietly growing, particularly around Melbourne, where the country's main courts sit at the old Eumemmerring complex and at a handful of private schools that have hosted the game for decades. Players training through a long arvo session in summer quickly learn that good movement is not just about speed — it is about reading the geometry of the court and the intentions of your opponent. The advice below blends proven techniques with the kind of conditioning that suits a country used to high-intensity sport in hot conditions.

Drill	Primary focus	Session length	Skill level
Shadow footwork sets	Stance and base	10 minutes	Beginner
Split-step reactions	Anticipation	15 minutes	Intermediate
Cone zigzag sprints	Lateral speed	12 minutes	All levels
Full-court recovery runs	Endurance movement	20 minutes	Advanced
Wall ball rally movement	Match application	25 minutes	All levels

Building a solid base

Every rapid movement starts from a stable base. In Rugby Fives, that means a shoulder-width stance with knees slightly bent, weight on the balls of your feet, and the racket held in a relaxed grip that allows quick changes of direction. Players who stand too tall or lock their back foot waste precious milliseconds shifting weight when the ball comes off the wall.

Practise the base by simply holding the position against a wall for short intervals, then adding small weight shifts from foot to foot. The aim is to feel grounded without being rooted. Many coaches liken it to the ready position used in cricket, an analogy that comes naturally to Australian players who have batted through a long net session in the heat. That same patience, that same sense of holding shape under pressure, translates directly into better court movement.

Reading the play

Footwork is only as effective as the decision driving it. Before you can move efficiently, you need to read the ball early, identify the likely shot shape, and position yourself to cover the most probable angles. Skilled players do not react to where the ball lands — they anticipate where it will arrive and adjust their starting position accordingly.

A simple way to train this is to play slow-paced rallies with a partner, calling out your predicted landing zone before each shot. Start with general areas such as "back left" or "front right" and progress to specific corners. Over time, this builds the pattern recognition that allows fluid movement without conscious thought. It is similar to the way AFL midfielders read the corridor before a stoppage — they are scanning, not sprinting first and thinking later.

Anticipation and the split-step

The split-step is the small bounce or hop you make just as your opponent strikes the ball, priming your legs to push off in any direction. It is a staple of squash and tennis footwork, and it works beautifully in Rugby Fives where reactions of a fraction of a second decide who wins the rally.

To practise, stand in your ready position and have a partner feed balls to random spots on the front wall. As they make contact, perform a small split-step, then drive to the ball. The movement should be compact, no higher than a few centimetres off the ground, so you do not lose balance. Beginners often jump too high; treat the split-step as a loaded spring rather than a hop. Within a few sessions, the timing will feel automatic.

Covering the court efficiently

A Rugby Fives court is small, but the angles can pull a player into all four corners within a single rally. Efficient movement is about taking the shortest, most balanced path to the ball rather than the most direct one. Cutting corners too sharply leaves you off-balance on the shot, while overrunning the ball means you are already moving the wrong way for the return.

Work on diagonal recovery patterns, returning to a central position after each shot rather than drifting sideways. Practise figure-eight runs that take you through the front half, around the buttress, and back through the back half without crossing your feet. Players from Sydney and Brisbane who travel down for state events often find this drill useful for adapting to unfamiliar court surfaces, where grip and bounce differ from what they train on at home.

Off-court conditioning

Strong court movement requires strong legs, but it also requires mobility in the hips, ankles, and shoulders. Tight muscles limit range of motion and slow recovery, particularly in older players or those returning from injury. Adding regular flexibility training to your weekly routine can pay dividends on court, improving the depth of your lunge into the front corners and the rotation needed for cut shots.

Plyometric work, calf raises, and single-leg balance drills complement on-court practice well. Australian players benefit from the variety available — beach runs along the coast build ankle stability on sand, while hill sprints in the Brindabellas or the Adelaide Hills develop explosive power. The goal is to arrive at training with a body that is ready to move quickly in any direction, not just forwards.

Court-specific drills

General fitness will only take you so far. The most effective movement work happens on the actual court, with the actual ball. Try these three drills once a week to embed good habits.

First, the corner-to-corner drill. Starting from the centre of the court, move to hit a self-fed ball into each of the four corners, alternating between forehand and backhand. Focus on clean footwork into the shot and a balanced recovery. Second, the buttress shadow drill. Practise the small foot adjustments needed to play the awkward ball off the side wall without losing shape. Third, the rally with constraint. Play a normal game but limit yourself to two steps per shot, forcing efficient positioning rather than running.

A useful reference for any of these drills is the association policies page, which outlines court etiquette and safety standards that influence how freely you can move during practice sessions.

Putting it all together in matches

Drills build habits, but matches test them under pressure. When you step onto court for a competitive fixture, the temptation is to revert to familiar movement patterns, even when those patterns are inefficient. The fix is intentional practice: pick one element of your movement to focus on during a match, such as holding a deeper ready position or using a split-step on every serve return.

After each game, note what worked and what did not. Did your recovery speed hold up in the third set, or did it fade? Did the split-step help on low balls but feel awkward on high serves? Honest reflection turns training into improvement. Players who compete regularly in the Melbourne summer league or the inter-school rounds at Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar will tell you that small movement gains, compounded over a season, transform results far more than any change to racket technique.

If you are keen to lift your game, the best next step is to book a coaching session through the Rugby Fives Association, join a local club session, or simply turn up to an open afternoon and put these ideas into practice. Better movement is built one session at a time, and the court is waiting.